


the things he can't bring back

by chris9065



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Community: inceptiversary, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 06:24:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4380674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chris9065/pseuds/chris9065
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>when arthur dreams, he can't bring anything back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the things he can't bring back

When he dreams, he can’t bring anything back.

 

He can’t bring back any of the ties that Eames gives him as gifts. He can't bring back the shells the forger insists on collecting at the shore when warm saltwater laps at their ankles. He can’t bring back any of the furniture that lines their home, nor the paintings that Eames tsks at but allows to hang on the walls nonetheless.

 

No matter how hard he tries, he can't bring back the lines in his back, red and raw, etched into his sweat-slicked skin by desperate fingernails. He tries to emulate them with other men and other nails, but they don’t burn the right way, don’t leave him keening for a rougher touch.

 

_In the same way, Arthur can’t bring anything into the dream. He can’t bring in Eames, with his real feelings and reservations. He can’t bring in the way Eames’ lips pull downwards when he says “it doesn’t mean anything, Arthur, we just sleep together”. He can’t have Eames when he’s dreaming; or maybe he can only have him when he’s dreaming, because the projection in his mind is so perfectly constructed that it becomes difficult to distinguish reality._

 

When he wakes up, Arthur doesn’t bring anything back except the overwhelming loneliness that hollows out his ribcage and leaves him aching. All he can do is cling to the empty memory with a shade of the man he loves and pray to God it doesn’t kill him.


End file.
